Method and apparatus for generating and distributing electricity

ABSTRACT

A cooling device may include a data center including at least one heat producing equipment and a power source of electric power dedicated to supply electric power only to the data center. The power source may be a renewable power source. The power source may be solar heat. The power source may be a steam turbine. The renewable source may include electrolyses to generate hydrogen. The hydrogen may be stored. The gas turbine may be powered by the hydrogen.

PRIORITY

The present invention claims priority under 35 USC section 119 and based upon a provisional application with a Ser. No. of 61/222, 935 which was filed on Jul. 3, 2009.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to energy savings and more particularly to energy savings and the carbon footprint associated with a data center.

BACKGROUND

A data center is a room wherein rows of equipment racks and enclosures situated side by side in very large numbers are located. The equipment racks and enclosures contain and organize communications and information technology equipment, such as servers, internet working equipment and storage devices. Each piece of the rack-mounted equipment consumes electrical power and generates heat. The amount of heat generated corresponds to the amount of power consumed by each piece of equipment.

Naturally, the total heat output of a single rack is the result of a cumulative affect of the heat generated by each piece of rack-mounted equipment. As a result, the heat output of each rack may vary greatly, depending upon the type of equipment, the duty cycle of use of each piece, the ambient temperature, and especially the cooling system being used.

Heat produced by rack-mounted equipment can have adverse effects on the performance, reliability and useful life of the equipment components. In particular, rack-mounted equipment housed within an enclosure is particularly vulnerable to heat build-up and hot spots produced within the confines of the enclosure during operation.

The problem is compounded by a dramatic surge of power consumption in computing systems that has significantly increased the costs of cooling, infrastructure, and energy of data centers and supercomputers. For example, just 25 years ago the typical dissipated power in a computer rack was only about 1 kW while today we are reaching power levels of almost 40 kW in a similar size rack. It is inevitable that future rack power levels will increase even further.

Therefore, the cost of removing the heat by air conditioning or cooling by other means of these large scale computing systems has emerged as one of the key challenges for any data center.

SUMMARY

A cooling device may include a data center including at least one heat producing equipment and a power source of electric power dedicated to supply electric power only to the data center.

The power source may be a renewable power source.

The power source may be solar heat.

The power source may be a steam turbine.

The renewable source may include electrolyses to generate hydrogen.

The hydrogen may be stored.

The gas turbine may be powered by the hydrogen.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention may be understood by reference to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which, like reference numerals identify like elements, and in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a data center in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates the data center and energy sources associated with the data center; and

FIG. 3 illustrates a wind farm for use by the data center;

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

This invention relates to a method of and apparatus for optimizing and improving the energy efficiency and reducing the ‘carbon-footprint’ of a data center which may be co-located with and may be fully integrated with at least one renewable electricity generating source Such as a wind-farm and an additional renewable energy technology such as wind-hydrogen, hydrogen storage, battery storage, solar heat or photo-voltaic technology. The energy sources may be formed separately and/or in combination and are managed to provide a substantially balanced supply of electricity for the data center with surplus electricity and hydrogen being provided to the external power grid and the external market through the external power grid. The method and corresponding apparatus are applicable to both onshore and offshore environments. If the wind farm is offshore, the co-located data center may utilize existing floating and fixed assets including operating and de-commissioned oil and gas platforms as well as onshore sites for data center location.

As shown in the drawings filed herewith, the invention relates to a method of and apparatus for optimizing and improving the energy efficiency and reducing the ‘carbon foot print’ of a data center which is co-located with and fully integrated with at least one renewable electricity generating source, the preferred source being a wind-farm. In one preferred embodiment, the invention utilizes existing off-shore structures to build wind farms in areas that generally have naturally occurring wind conditions and that are generally remote from highly occupied territory, including abandoned or de-commissioned oil and gas platforms.

FIG. 1 illustrates a data center layout with a number of high voltage alternating current HVAC and backup power supplies. Data centers 101 (also known as server farms) are large consumers of electricity. Current usage indicates that these centers are responsible for approximately 1% to 1.5% of total world electricity consumption. This is expected to increase to between 2% and 3% of total world electricity consumption in the next 10 years at the current growth rate of approximately 16% per annum. Data centers alone consume >3% of electricity used in the US.

FIG. 1 illustrates a rack mounted equipment 103 which may include heat generating equipment, a UPS 105 to provide an uninterruptible power supply for the data center 101, an air conditioning unit 107 to supply air conditioning to the data center 101, a power generator 109 to supply AC power to the data center 101

FIG. 2 is a schematic of an onshore method and apparatus which may be dedicated to implementing the invention and dedicated only to the data center 101. Except where otherwise noted, all the energy sources are dedicated to the data center 101. Wind energy which is just one form of renewable energy and which may be generated from the windfarm 283 which may be co-located and may be dedicated to the data center 101, supported by solar thermal energy which may be generated from the solar heat installation 287 are the primary power sources for the data center 101, These are in turn supplemented by DC battery power and stored which may be implemented in a battery array 281 to keep the data centre 101 powered during times of low wind/solar energy. Ideally, at no time are conventional fossil fuels or grid power required, but is available through the external power grid as illustrated as the energy market 298 for periods when the primary power sources for the data center 101 may be unavailable.

The electric controller 292 receives electrical energy generated from the windfarm 283 which generates the electrical energy from wind power or the steam turbine 289 which generates electrical energy from the heat received from the solar heat installation 287. The electric controller 292 directs electrical energy to the battery array 281 which stores the electrical energy until required by the data center 101 or directs excess electrical energy to the energy market 298 over the external power grid or directs electrical energy to the electrolyser 293. The water controller 294 may receive water from the water supply reservoir 285 and may direct water to the data center 101, more particularly to the data center heat exchanger or may direct order to the electrolyser 293 or may direct water to the condenser 291. The condenser 291 may direct the water to the solar heat installation 287 which may heat the water and transferred the heated water to the steam turbine 289 which may generate electricity to be controlled by the electric controller 292 or may be used to drive the condenser 291. The electrolyzer 293 may use the water from the water controller 294 and the electric power from the electric controller 292 to generate hydrogen which may be stored by the hydrogen storage unit 295. The hydrogen storage unit 295 may supply hydrogen to the gas turbine 297 which may supply power to the electric controller 292, and the hydrogen storage unit 295 may supply hydrogen to the energy market 272.

FIG. 3 extends the method and apparatus of the present invention to an offshore location. Individual wind turbines 331 may be grouped together to form a wind turbine farm 333, and the wind turbines 331 which may be located offshore be connected to other individual wind turbines 331 which may act as both a central connection point 335/host which may include voltage transformers in order that the power from the individual wind turbines 331 is collected at a central location and be transmitted to location for the central connection point 335 which is in turn connected to the data center 101. The present invention may include newly constructed facilities or the use of existing decommissioned platforms and other relict offshore O&G hardware as host facilities. Alternatively, the wind turbine farm 333 may be located onshore 337.

The foregoing disclosure and description of the invention are illustrative and exemplary thereof, and various changes in the size, shape and materials, as well as in the details of the illustrated construction, may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention.

While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof have been shown by way of example in the drawings and are herein described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the description herein of specific embodiments is not intended to limit the invention to the particular forms disclosed. 

1) A cooling device, comprising: a data center including at least one heat producing equipment; a power source of electric power dedicated to supply electric power only to the data center. 2) A cooling device as in claim 1, wherein the power source is a renewable power source. 3) A cooling device as in claim 1, wherein the power source is solar heat. 4) A cooling device as in claim 4, wherein the power source includes a steam turbine. 5) A cooling device as in claim 3, wherein the renewable source includes electrolyses to generate hydrogen. 6) A cooling device as in claim 6, wherein the hydrogen stored. 7) A cooling device as in claim 6, wherein the gas turbine is powered by the hydrogen. 